Fire research has been a part of the Forest Service's work since the very early years. Gifford Pinchot, during his first year as chief, authorized studying the history of forest fires to better understand the damaging effects. Pinchot's staff cataloged five thousand fires dating back to 1754 in the study. Information from this study was then used to determine departmental budgets within the Forest Service. Fire research has remained a focus of the agency throughout history, and has evolved from Pinchot's initial study into highly sophisticated analyses of fuel, combustion, and weather.